Saturday, April 21, 2012

Thanks for your patience, everyone! Well, I'm more or less moved into my new house and I've been baking (a lot). Of course, as you can see I've not done so much blogging. I've had recipes to test and retest and I'm still getting used to my new kitchen and my new oven. No small adjustment either. My previous oven was a cavernous convection/conventional Viking professional gas oven that could fit full sheet pans--pans bigger than my kid's crib mattress--to a more ordinary Whirlpool electric.

While I can no longer bake dozens of cookies at a time, the modest oven hasn't disappointed (though several recipes have). Of course, I've not attempted macarons in this new oven and that's a headache I'm still saving for later.

So today is an absolutely gorgeous spring day in our new home town of Mill Creek which lies just north of Seattle. I was lucky enough to relocate to an area with a wicked good donut shop (Frost) and a brand new French Bakery (Mon Amie--yes they do macarons, go visit) that I'm now haunting. So before I go out and hit the garden and enjoy this sunshine, we're going to bake up a cake.

Something light, creamy and versatile. The cake is perfect with just about anything fruity, be it citrus curds, a drizzle of a thick fruit coulis, or fresh from the garden berries. Given that it is April, I wont pretend that any berries used today are fresh from the garden but as things warm up that will be a possibility. So let's talk cake!

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Well noon (PST) as come and gone, so I think we're ready to pick a winner for the Sucre giveaway!

So these Jellybeans on my nightstand. I guess we're all wondering how many I have, right?

Okay, here is the deal: I like Jelly Belly beans. I really like them. Sometimes I have four pounds of them in a jar on my desk. Okay, so maybe that is a lot of candy to have casually sitting around, but could you really expect anything less with my sweet tooth?

Well, I didn't have four pounds laying around last weekend. No. I had been nibbling on these beans for a couple months now, digging out the choice beans--like black licorice and juicy pear. So when I did the count last Saturday all that remained were 255 beans. Weighing a total of 283 grams.

Counting jellybeans, one by one, without eating any?
That's is hard!

I've gone through all the guesses on the blog and in the NSHP email box and calculated who was closest with beans or grams and determined it was M with 292 grams:

mFeb 19, 2012 06:35 PMLet's go with 292 grams. And I oooooh-ed several times during this post. First, when I saw you had posted (yay! yay! yay!) and again with the cookbok...and then again with the yummy pinkness. :)

Congratulations! I'll be in contact with you via email and I'll have this cookbook to you soon. I hope you enjoy it. Of course, if you end up re-selling it on amazon for a cool two or three hundred dollars, I can't say I wouldn't understand.

As for myself, I'm going to spend the rest of the weekend continuing to pack. No baking for me just yet, all my pans are already boxed up waiting on paperwork and a set of keys to finally change hands.

I deserve a break from all this bubble wrap and packing tape. Maybe even a little indulgence in two guilty pleasures: a little world of warcraft and the rest of those jelly beans. Yum.

Edit: Woo! It appears that as of March 8th, Amazon actually has the book back in stock for list price. I'm not certain if it is back in print, but it is certainly going for less than $999 today. Take that, price gougers!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Not really, but bear with me I'll be back in the groove of things as soon as I'm settled. I really have been busy, juggling some major changes around here. You see, among other things, I'm buying a new house and dealing with all the madness that goes along with that process. It's been a hectic couple of months but hopefully, if everything goes well, I'll be baking future macarons in a brand new oven soon.

No, who am I kidding. The next several weeks will be spent packing and moving an entire household. Maybe replacing a few door knobs too, since our builder decided to go with a design that I can only describe as suitable for your Grandma's cottage--on Mars. Anyway, breaking in my bright and sunny new kitchen with a little baking will happen, I just need to get settled in.